Day
by jaimeastorga2000
Summary: As Eliwood's army stops to rest for a day on a hill, soldiers are able to take their minds off battle for a few hours and concentrate on a new holiday: Valentine's Day. In special little Florina, who seeks to give someone a card for this occasion...


My second work for this site, Day was also developed for a writing competition. After all, part of the reason why I signed up for it was to have something to force me to write. XD I hope you enjoy it! And if you like it, please leave reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem, no matter how cool that would be. It is the property of Intelligent Systems/Nintendo, so please, don't sue this poor Peruvian.

**Day**

The ridge was had always been. Blades of grass covered it's surface by the thousands. A forest sat on one end, the one connected to the land, and on the other was an abyss. It was quite a beautiful ridge to sit on and contemplate the day (if one was not scared of the great height in between oneself and the ground) because as the day went by several colors filled the sky at different times, becoming most beautiful at sunrise, as if to signify the dawn of a new day.

Still, the group of soldiers currently encamped there would have no way to know this. They had just gotten there last night, and would leave early tomorrow morning. At the time, the ridge had been beautiful not because of anything it offered to the eyes, but because it was a safe heaven in which the tired men and women could rest. It was a very strong position, surrounded on 3 sides with bottomless pits and on one with a forest on which one could post a few sentries and be well provided for anything that may come.

In such a safety enveloped, the members of Eliwood's army were able to, for one day at least, forget all about the great war they were currently engaged in. Thought of the Black Fang, and, for the limited few who knew about him, Nergal, disappeared as everyone set out to enjoy the mini-vacations they had received. Of course, to ask for relaxation of some of them was to ask for too much. Lowen had been early as usual preparing breakfast for his Lord, Eliwood, and for his general, Marcus. Kent was escorting Lyn (or Lady Lyndis, as he called her) wherever she went as if he expected her to come upon some danger at any moment, and Hector was at this moment busily discussing battle plans with his sworn man, Oswin. As of now, they had a clear idea of where the next battle would likely be fought, and were delivering on what would be the most likely course of enemy action before presenting these plans to the others. Mark, of course, was there with them. It wouldn't do for the tactician of an army to be sleep while the tactics for the next battle were being discussed.

However, some people had some... "other" concerns in their minds. For as everyone who kept a calendar knew (and all those who didn't had been reminded by those that did) today was the morning of February 14th; Valentine's day. It was a fairly new festivity, apparently instituted to honor one of the followers of St. Elimine's teaching who was sanctified; Valentine. However, none in the army knew the full details, and a any rate any that might was more busy with how to spend it.

Of the most ridiculous ideas ever had, it had to be admitted Sain's was worthy of being retold through the ages; he was actually stupid enough to sneak out of the camp after midnight, head to the local inn, and try to score on every single girl there at once. Apparently, he had been trying to set up an orgy of some sort... only it worked even worse than usual. The miscalculation he had made (apart from the ones he always performed) was that that night a local mercenary group was staying at the inn, and he later realized most of the girls he had been trying to seduce belonged to that group. Try as he might he could not possibly block 13 sword blows at once, which was what followed. Luckily, he had been wise enough to wear his armor, so he managed to escape with his life... although it had taken Serra and Pricilla all of the morning just to get him to stop screaming in agony.

However, one of the soldiers was currently not engaged in neither duty nor spending time with a loved one. Instead, she sat by herself on the back of her tent. She could hear her sister's snores, and she smiled softly, thinking about how they deserved a good night's rest after what had happened during the last conflict. It had fallen on the three of them to defeat a small group of mages, which had proven to be harder to kill than expected. Farina and Fiora had done most of the work, though, so she was feeling fresh after just 8 hours of sleep. In all truth, she would have probably slept more, but the screams of a wounded Sain being brought back into the camp had woken her up, and as soon as she realized what day it was she had no intention of lying down again, for there was something she had been looking forward to...

She let out a small sight, and walked next to her pegasus. The winged horse approached happily and let herself be petted by the purple haired pegasus knight. This being done, Florina took a seat on a small box nearby and mediated on her predicament.

She had heard of this holiday, Valentine's Day, and after learning some of the customs practiced there had become very excited. She had always enjoyed romance, and so the idea of a day dedicated to love was very appealing to her. But her world of fantasy, build up in the clouds in the space of about 30 seconds, came tumbling down in one when she remembered she didn't have anybody with whom to share it. She had her sisters' love, of course, but... it wasn't enough. This had been a week ago.

In the time between then and today, young Florina had had time to think many a thought. In this fashion, she came upon a resolve. She wouldn't spend Valentine's day alone. She... she would confess her feelings for the one she loved! Florina could hardly believe she was thinking what she was thinking, but indeed she was. She had made a resolve to speak today, that she may not be alone again.

The problem was, she hadn't had any idea how to achieve this. How was she to tell her best friend, her Lady, Lyndis, that a yellow rose would not be enough to satisfy her? That she wanted to be more than her friend? She had come upon that question and pondered about it for 5 nights, until at last she had decided the best way to express her feelings would be with a card. If she tried to speak, she would probably just stutter and bite her tongue. Not to mention, she might chicken out midway. This day, once delivered the card was done. She couldn't take it back, even if she wanted.

And with that resolve she had set to work. Art supplies were not in great abundance in a military camp, but fortunately Merlinus the merchant always carried something or another. In the end, she had constructed what she would have considered quite a nice card if someone had delivered it to her.

That leads us to right now. Florina was trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible as she made her way down to Lyndis tent. She called once. Then twice. Then a third time. No response came in from the brown fabric. Florina knew her friend wasn't the sort to sleep late, but then again neither were her sisters, and yet there they were sleeping like babies. She thought the least she could do was take a look… if Lyndis was sleep, she might just leave the card by her bed for when she woke up.

She heard a noise. Immediately, she hid under a table. She was not supposed to enter her Lady's tent while she was not there without her permission, and while she doubted Lyndis would get too mad, it would be best if this didn't start off with the wrong foot. If she was going to declare her love, she might as well be courteous until she did so.

She peeked her head out of from under the table and gasped; it wasn't Lyn who had made the noise. It had been Hector, who was now inside the tent, walking around and obviously having nothing to do. In fact, he was waiting for Lyn. The two had agreed to meet with each other at her tent today to spar, but Hector had finished his duties early thanks to Oswin's help, meaning he had more than enough time to spend there, waiting for her.

But Florina knew none of this. All she knew was that suddenly her heartbeat rose and her breathing stop, and had she not caught control of herself in time she would have screamed. As it was, she merely backed away a bit under the table, and after that she had continue to slowly back up… if she came out the other side and crawled her way out of the table, he would never know…

But of course, the luck of a person trying to deliver a Valentine's card is never THAT good. She hit one of the legs of metal as she backed away, with the result that the whole of the thing almost fell on her. That was not the worse, however, for a great noise had also been produced… Florina could feel Hector's armor make noise as plates of armor clashed with one another in an effort to allow the blue haired man to move. At any minute now, he would peer under the table and check…

Florina didn't think about it twice. She ran off in the opposite direction, eventually ignoring one and all cries Hector made of "Florina! Wait!" Hector might have the power, but she had the speed. Of course it was nothing compared to Lyndis, but it was good enough to put some good distance between herself and Hector before she had to rest.

When she came to rest, she realized she was near the hospital tent. Immediately, a thought entered her head; she would go in and ask the nurse in turn if they had seen Lyndis. She was bound to have passed around here. She had to visit Sain, after all, even if he could be a callow oaf at times, for he was still her knight.

Florina shyly entered the tent marked with a cross. She didn't want to wake up any of the patients. All she saw, however, were some empty beds, a pair of staves left behind against the wall, and one patient, presumably Sain, which was sleeping in the bed.

Realizing that the lack of their instruments must have meant the two were out doing something together (and that given the date, she shouldn't wonder what), Florina turned around and prepared to leave the tent, when all of a sudden someone called out "Oi! Florina!"

The pegasus knight jumped in the air what seemed to her like 2 meters. Shaking, she turned around to see who had scared her. She then noticed a sitting up figure in the bed, who has blonde hair and a rather nice musculature. Immediately she recognized who it was; Sain!

"Oh, beauteous Florina, has thou come here to visit thy fallen knight to speed his recovery? You are so charming…" these were the words that came out of his mouth, which she wasn't feeling too comfortable with already. However, she suddenly realized Sain might know where Lyn was. So, approaching just a little bit, she asked in a shy voice "I'm sorry…? Do you know where I can find Lady Lindys?

Sain's facial features contorted into a look of disgust. Sain made a little gesture in his face which indicated disgust. He sat up straighter in the bed and for the first time Florina noticed he was shirtless. Although for all the bandages he was wearing, he might as well have wore a coat. "Yeah, I know where she is all right. She is taking a pleasure stroll around the borders of the camp with my 'friend', Kent." Soon, however, he returned to his happy demeanor. "But he shall receive just punishment in the afterlife. For now, let me concentrate on offering you what humble services I can provide on my current condition." And he smiled.

Florina was less than encouraged by this remark, so she began walking past Sain in order to make her way out "Ehhh… nothing" when she felt Sain hold her arm.

"Oh, come on. There must be something as good a knight as I am can -"…and he never finished the sentence.

At that moment, Florina went hysterical. She tugged her arm with 5 times the strength she thought she had and yelled out loud enough for the whole of the camp to hear "NO, GET AWAY!"

Strength and shock made short work of Sain's grasp, meaning Florina was soon once again free. However, instead of flying around like a butterfly, she moved from one place to another with heavy legs, thinking about what had happened… Hector and Sain. And Sain had mentioned Kent was with Lyndis to celebrate this day, she was just recalling…

This was simply too much! Taking her face into her hands, Florina's knees collapsed on the grass and she cried. She cried as she thought of Sain, of Hector, of Kent, of this war and of the fact that even the opportunity to confess to her childhood friend her feelings was been denied to her. All she had wanted to do was to give Lyn a card! Had that been… so much to ask…?

"Florina!" came the cry of a strong, feminine voice.

"Huh…?" the purple haired Pegasus knight was so surprised she stopped sobbing for a moment and rolled her hands into fists to clear her eyes, that she may see who was coming. At first it was all too blurry, but then she saw green hair and dress, and a sword being carried on the side of her belt.

And then she realizes she knew the voice, too.

"Oh, St. Elimine, not her, please!" she pleaded. She, a sworn pegasus knight who had promised to protect her, was about to be seen by the Sacaean swordsman tress that was her Lady in tears and in the middle of the grass. If this day had not had enough humiliations before this, it now did.

"Florina!" Lyn called again once she was by her friend's side. "Florina, what's wrong?" she asked, full of concern.

But Florina wasn't listening. She was hiding her head behind her arms, as if Lyn didn't already know she was crying. As if Lyn hadn't seen her tears countless times in the plains of Sacae when they were children. Lyn saw she was too altered to talk, and so simply kneeled down by the ground and hugged her. "Shhhh…. shh…. it's allright… don't cry…"

Florina at first attempted to escape Lyn's grasp, but she of house Caelin was much stronger and easily kept her in place. At length all Florina accomplished was to tire herself out, to the point where she didn't have any resistance anymore and simply broke down and cried on her friend's shoulder.

Lyn only held her in her arms, trying to calm her down with soothing words, and gradually these had the desired effect. Little by little did Florina calm down, until at least she was only the prey of a sporadic sob every now and then.

"There… there…" said Lyndis, looking at her tear stained face. "Now, tell me, what were you crying about?"

Florina contemplated it for a few seconds, but she was in no condition to think about the wisdom of it and told every word of what had happened to her today to the woman that now held her. Lyn listened attentively, and when she finished Lyn only hugged her tighter "Florina… you went through all that trouble just to give me a card? That is so sweet of you…"

"Yes, but it was a disaster!" Florina said, and Lyn could see she was in danger of breaking down again. To avoid this she immediately though of something to say, "Well I am here right now. Do you want to give me your card?"

"I-I…" was all Florina could mumble. Instead, she let her hands speak for her and pulled the card out of the bag she was carrying it in. Then she gave it to a waiting Lyndis, who opened it with the utmost care after admiring the cover for a little while and eventually turned her face up to look at Florina.

"You made this card… for me? Florina…" she hugged her again, even tighter than before, and before they knew it they shared the tiniest of kisses, hidden in beneath their interlocked hair, so that a certain red knight over in the distance noticed nothing.

---------------

Kent looked over. When himself and Lady Lyndis had come upon the sight of a sobbing Florina, they had wisely decided that Kent should stay behind. In that state, the last thing Florina needed was to see a man in her proximity as soon as she stopped crying. It looked like Lady Lyndis was comforting her friend in a hug... however, at this distance the words were not perceptible, and at any rate it would have been rude to listen to his liege's conversation without her knowing about it.

At any rate, he had "other" things to worry about. Throwing a furtive glance, he reached into his armor and pulled out a card he had made for the Lady Lyndis. He had recently learned of this new special day, Valentine's day, and decided it would make for a perfect opportunity to approach her. No longer as her loyal knight, but as Kent. He once again glanced over at them... all he hoped was that Florina would get better soon, that he might proceed to guide Lady Lyndis away from the camp and present to her his card.


End file.
